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Subject Author Date
running shell_exec commands as root Lawrence Krubner 07-11-2008
Posted by Lawrence Krubner on July 11, 2008, 4:06 am
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I've a PHP script that is run as a cron job. It contains this line:

$stringListingAllProcesses = shell_exec("lsof | grep vsftpd");


The lsof command returns almost nothing unless you are the root user.
Can anyone think of a way I can use su or sudo or something else to get
this script to run as root?

(And yes, I'm aware that it is dangerous to allow a PHP script to run as
root, but it is in an otherwise secure environment, far removed from the
web.)



Posted by Erwin Moller on July 11, 2008, 4:26 am
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Lawrence Krubner schreef:
>
> I've a PHP script that is run as a cron job. It contains this line:
>
> $stringListingAllProcesses = shell_exec("lsof | grep vsftpd");
>
>
> The lsof command returns almost nothing unless you are the root user.
> Can anyone think of a way I can use su or sudo or something else to get
> this script to run as root?
>
> (And yes, I'm aware that it is dangerous to allow a PHP script to run as
> root, but it is in an otherwise secure environment, far removed from the
> web.)

Hi,

The easiest way is to make a cronjob for root.
Just go root and crontab it.

If you have no rootaccess, you cannot run as root of course....

Regards,
Erwin Moller

Posted by lawrence k on July 18, 2008, 8:56 pm
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On Jul 11, 4:26 am, Erwin Moller
> LawrenceKrubnerschreef:
>
>
>
> > I've a PHP script that is run as a cron job. It contains this line:
>
> > $stringListingAllProcesses = shell_exec("lsof | grep vsftpd");
>
> > The lsof command returns almost nothing unless you are the root user.
> > Can anyone think of a way I can use su or sudo or something else to get
> > this script to run as root?
>
> > (And yes, I'm aware that it is dangerous to allow a PHP script to run as
> > root, but it is in an otherwise secure environment, far removed from the
> > web.)
>
> Hi,
>
> The easiest way is to make a cronjob for root.
> Just go root and crontab it.
>
> If you have no rootaccess, you cannot run as root of course....


That is what I tried first. I logged in as root and did "crontab -e".
But the script doesn't seem to run as root. The lsof in the script
seems to run as... I don't know who. It returns no data, which would
make sense for a non-root user.




Posted by Erwin Moller on July 23, 2008, 1:11 pm
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lawrence k schreef:
> On Jul 11, 4:26 am, Erwin Moller
>> LawrenceKrubnerschreef:
>>
>>
>>
>>> I've a PHP script that is run as a cron job. It contains this line:
>>> $stringListingAllProcesses = shell_exec("lsof | grep vsftpd");
>>> The lsof command returns almost nothing unless you are the root user.
>>> Can anyone think of a way I can use su or sudo or something else to get
>>> this script to run as root?
>>> (And yes, I'm aware that it is dangerous to allow a PHP script to run as
>>> root, but it is in an otherwise secure environment, far removed from the
>>> web.)
>> Hi,
>>
>> The easiest way is to make a cronjob for root.
>> Just go root and crontab it.
>>
>> If you have no rootaccess, you cannot run as root of course....
>
>
> That is what I tried first. I logged in as root and did "crontab -e".
> But the script doesn't seem to run as root. The lsof in the script
> seems to run as... I don't know who. It returns no data, which would
> make sense for a non-root user.
>

Hi,

Roor user should be able to run that command just fine.
Are you sure you simply don't have a process named 'vsftpd'?
What does this produce:
$stringListingAllProcesses = shell_exec("lsof");

Also nothing???

Regards,
Erwin Moller

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